The free Focos app brings more professional looking bokeh to your dual-cam iPhone

Apple's 'Portrait Mode' on the company's dual-camera iPhones is a cool feature that produces some neat photos. But if you're not a fan of the fake bokeh Apple's standard camera app generates, you might want to check out a free new app called Focos.

Created by the same indie developer behind the apps Colorburn and MaxCurve, Focos takes your iPhone 7 Plus, 8 Plus or X's Portrait Mode shots and makes them look more 'professional' by adding more realistic and customizable bokeh effects.

Focos allows you to pick custom bokeh 'shapes', generate more professional-looking bokeh by selecting options like 'creamy' or 'swirly', import your current Portrait Mode photos and re-edit the background, and re-focus Portrait Mode photos after the fact. And since it's already capturing 3D data, the app allows you to access that data and apply filters based on depth.

The results should ostensibly look better than what Apple is generating with its own Camera app, but at the very least they'll be more customizable so you can find a more appropriate effect for every photo.

Comments

mwsoft, I am Pro user of your app and want to unequivocally tell you that you are going in the right direction with the development of Focus and as it's stands it is by a million miles compared to another competing app, the best of it's kind on mobile photography. Focos demolishes Apple's ridiculous camera app and it's dubiously useful Portrait Mode that is not much more than a gimmick. Keep up the good work and development of Focus. It's truly the first app that realistically reproduces computational depth into a seriously realistic and editable levels. A game changer and the ONLY camera app I use now on my iPhone 8 Plus.

Several of my existing shots designated as having been taken in Portrait mode come up in Focos as having "invalid depth data." I'm guessing that there was an earlier version of Portrait Mode which created some blur but did not capture the depth info. Those same images also cannot be processed with the existing camera app. At any rate, only two of my images qualified to be processed, but the effect of changing focus depth was quite impressive.

mwsoft, amazing app, I'm so excited about it. Thanks for making it. I've supported it with full price.Here's a valid suggestion that will perfect your app.If there's a way to zoom in and paint certain areas the iphone missed with depth and push it backwards or forewards with depth. a paint fix depth feature it would be the first of its kind! I find this happens alot in portrait mode when the iphone does not sense background areas when there are holes.

I found the most interesting thing is being able to make small adjustments to the focus spot after the picture has been taken. For example, using portrait mode with the stock camera app on an iPhone 7 while taking a picture of my dog often makes his nose more in focus than his eyes, since a dog's nose can often be quite long. But with the app, it was neat being able to pull it back a bit towards his nose. A neat app for specific situations. This app also will produce the bokeh effect all the time when the picture is taken. The stock camera app doesn't always produce the portrait mode effect.

Many photographers mean the quality of the out of focus blur, when they say 'bokeh'. However, in Japanese 'boke' just means 'blurry'. Which would more directly mean the fact that a background appears blurry, i.e., quantity.

I think the mobile phone camera industry pretty much adopted the second meaning as initially, camera phones had no out of focus blur at all.

It not the quantity of blur that makes it look professional; it's the quality.Therefore the phrase, "Professional quality bokeh," is perfectly accurate.And that's the mistake that app developers make: simply adding more blur does not make photos look more professional.

I'm Patrick, the developer of Focos and MaxCurve, 25 years software engineer. Thank you all for loving my new app. Here I can answer some questions.

1, Focos is based on dual cameras on iOS 11. So it only runs on iPhones having dual cameras, it means you need the 7+/8+/X.2, It really takes picture with depth data, so your original photos will be saved with 3D data.3, It renders depth photos with bokeh effect by every distance layers, not a simple gradient blur or selection blur.4, I'm making a new version for one-time purchase. Next week you may get the pro version with lifetime access without monthly subscription.5, Focos can't be searched very well in App Store because App Store uses "Focus" automatically to replace the keyword you input and the result is all about focus. But you may search "Focos camera" to find this app in App Store.6, A whole bunch of new features will be added into Focos in the future updates.

Between this app and the Lightroom app camera, I’m set! This app has an amazing feature where you can rotate the photo on a 3d plane and look at the focal point from the side, in a depth-centric view. It’s really cool and unlike anything I’ve seen before!

I’m pretty surprised at how great this app is. You can adjust all characteristics of the bokeh, the shape, the outline, the size, the intensity, the brightness, color depth, etc. Add in that is has the ability to see and remap the depth map, fix errors after the image is taken, and this is actually pretty awesome. Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it!

Okay, It's mean you can edit on those "one camera" device but the picture will be invalid, So just try to Airdrop some Portrait mode picture into your device and try if it works or not,For me, Portrait picture that taken before IOS11 doesn't work either. maybe you can go back to app store and then read the developer description againRegards.

I tried it. It’s pretty impressive. The only downside is that the “pro” version, which unlocks a few more customizations, doesn’t have a one-time purchase option: you unlock it for a month ($1) or a year ($6), and that’s it. I know the subscription model is all the rage these days, and the cost really isn’t much, but I’d rather buy it outright.

Ha, I once did a job for a champagne company that used heart shaped bokeh. Most people that saw the photos assumed it was computer generated, but no, just stuck a bit of cardboard to the front of the lens...

Usually I am against fake effects. However after being a long time user of MaxCurves, I would try this when I eventually get a dual cam phone. MaxCurves is excellent for RAW development on my iPhone 6s Plus.

I think he had it right in the original post. Once the digital approximation is close enough to the real thing, and easier to achieve, how many people will do it the old fashioned way? Its the same thing people said about digital vs. film- how many people, other than special cases, still shoot much film? Every advantage of larger formats (previously film) can and will be replaced by better electronics. Smaller, cheaper, less moving parts, etc. Might as well embrace it! Maybe the old ways will fade, but you can learn, experiment and play with the new as they evolve. Different, but still fun!

When they were at Digitalrev, Kai and Lok interviewed some Nikon and Canon representative (native speakers mind you) on the subject at Photokina or some similar event. Look it up, you can get different Japanese accent versions from native speakers who know the term.

Well, the highlight comparison with the wood and dried flowers clearly shows much more realistic lens blur than Apple's algorithms produce. But it's still a bit off. I think Huawei or Google might do it best...now they just need to clean up their edgefinding.

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